Meta has announced plans to discontinue its standalone Messenger desktop applications for both Windows and macOS beginning December 15, 2025, marking another step in its ongoing effort to consolidate user experiences across platforms.
Starting on that date, users will no longer be able to log into the desktop apps and will instead be redirected to Facebook.com to access Messenger. Meta confirmed the development to TechCrunch on Thursday, noting that in-app notifications will be sent out to affected users ahead of the shutdown.
“You will have 60 days to use the Mac Messenger app before it is fully deprecated. Once the 60 days are over, you’ll be blocked from using the app. We encourage you to delete the app since it will no longer be usable,” Meta stated on its Messenger help page.
The company’s plan to wind down the apps was first spotted by AppleInsider. The decision affects both Messenger for Mac, which had been reintroduced in 2023 with a refreshed interface, and Messenger for Windows, which previously served millions of users seeking a desktop-based messaging experience.
Meta says the change aims to streamline Messenger’s ecosystem and push users toward the web version of the platform, which offers end-to-end encryption, message syncing, and access across multiple devices.
To ensure a smooth transition, the company is encouraging users to activate secure storage and set up a PIN to safeguard their chat history before the shutdown. This feature ensures that messages remain accessible once users switch to Facebook’s web-based Messenger.
Users can enable secure storage by navigating to Settings → Privacy & Safety → End-to-End Encrypted Chats → Message Storage and ensuring “Turn on secure storage” is activated.
While Windows users can still communicate via the Facebook desktop app, Mac users will have to rely on the web version for continued access.
The move follows Meta’s shift in September 2024, when it replaced Messenger’s native desktop app with a Progressive Web App (PWA). The upcoming shutdown suggests Meta is further consolidating its desktop experience around its browser-based ecosystem — a change likely to draw criticism from long-time desktop users who prefer standalone messaging tools.
Meta has not confirmed whether a redesigned desktop experience or native replacement is in development.
